Bordeaux (continued)

Time trials are the best spectator stage for watching a stage race. There is still no parellel to the excitement of watching a mountain stage high up near the top of the last climb, but for the average spectator the time trial offers the most bang for the buck. I stayed in a campsite on the north end of Bordeaux after watching Fridays sprint finish, and picked up two bottles of wine while waiting for my dinner (I was afraid the wine store across the square would close before I was finished, and indeed it did). One bottle of wine to enjoy during the time trial and 1 to bring to Paris to share. I dressed for serious biking the next day, tour de France T-shirt, bathing suit, and flip-flops. I packed up my thermarest chair and rode all bike paths for about 20 minutes at a leisurely pace until I started seeing people standing beside the road and policemen. I found a nice billboard that seemed to offer a flat surface and shade and setup for the day. Bikers were already coming through, as the first rider starts about 10:15 and I only got out of camp at 10:45. But no worries, they ride in reverse order of overall time; save the best for last so to speak. I've got like 5 hours left. It was actually quite a relaxing day, with bikers rolling through about every minute. I had my bottle of wine, some snacks, a couple of cameras, my thermarest chair basically functioned as a recliner, and decent shade. I probably spent an hour applying sunblock, so that only leaves like 4hrs I guess. After I was down to about the last hour, I switched to the other side of the road to get better pictures and video as the riders favored that side due to the upcoming turn. There was 52km of course, and so that left plenty of real estate to stake out if you weren't too particular about where you watched it from. The police must've been watching me as I inflated the thermarest and installed it in the chair, because one made some grand hand gesture indicating relaxed or ready after I sat down in it, obviously appreciating how well prepared I was despite arriving via bike. I also noticed there was a sign tied to the light pole in front of me with a Tour de France course arrow; I'd noticed those in the windows of some of the RVs following the tour and thought it would make a good souvenir. I then decided I needed to protect this one, as this would be mine as soon as the last rider had gone through.

I texted friends to inform me of the riders in front of Lance so that I could be ready, and decided to switch sides of the road for the last of the stage to get better pictures and video. One of the direction assistance red tour de france cars pulled in behind me after leaving a rider, and then as the guy got out I realized he just needed to make a quick pit stop. I yelled out "yeah, that's the spot" seeing that it was the same place about 4 other people had chosen throughout the day, including French police officers. He came back to the car and got out a couple sodas from an ice chest and tossed me a coke--what a perfect complement to the warm day with only about 10 riders remaining, though now spaced as much as three minutes apart.
Rob Lilley, I think was his name, came by early talking a mile a minute. He was an australian that was also following the tour by bike, and had a GoPro camera mounted to his bike but was out of SD cards and filming stuff on his Iphone. Apparently he had stayed at the Regent hotel the night before and told me what room number and alias Tom Cruise had used there the night before, as he and Diaz were there with a film release and supposedly some scientology event also for Tom.

Anyhow, I got my arrow and strapped it to the top tube of my bike, getting plenty of smiles from the pedestrians I passed as I pedaled through Bordeaux that night. Finally, I was a man without a pressing mission again. It was relaxing to know that I was not following the mayhem to Paris, and had batted 100% at the stages I had intended to watch. I've filled a bunch of memory cards with photos and video that will probably take me 6 months to go through.

So this campsite. It's like a resort. It is camping for people that don't camp but want to tell their friends that they went camping. It's got showers, bathrooms, laundry, a restaurant, a wifi lounge, and a pool. Unfortunately the poolman decided to run the gas powered blower at 7am Sunday morning to clean off the pool deck. As I checked in to request one more night there, I mentioned that and apparently I was not the first. So I guess the guests had complained the day before that the pool was not opened on time, it opened after the posted 10am. So today the poolguy started early I guess and no surprise other people complained. I seem to be spending whatever I save on cheap lodging on food thus far, but without the schedule of the tour to keep, I can start whittling down the food I packed for cooking on my campstove. Which reminds me, last night I was looking to get some fuel for it. I'd kept my eye open in Lourdes for Coleman fuel but hadn't seen any, just the Camping Gaz containers that I was worried might be tough to find. I bought a stove in Ireland that takes either Coleman fuel OR unleaded gasoline. I knew I couldn't take the Gaz containers on my flight and didn't want to have to source them at the destination. Gasoline, I knew I would be able to find wherever. But then at 9pm I seemed to be limited to stations that were all automated and didn't want to take any of my credit cards. But alas a French guy about 25 stopped by with a flat bike tire and I let him borrow my pump. Then proceed to approach the next guy getting gas (the first had not a single credit card) and explain with mostly hand signals my predicament and that I needed gas for my stove and had money to pay him. He was actually getting diesel so it was even more of an inconvenience for him. It took about 40 cents worth of gas, and he wouldn't take any money for it, so hopefully the Karma from the bike pump was getting passed around. I was a little unsure about cooking with gasoline, but it doesn't really smell when it's burning. And regardless of the irony of finding the camping Gaz, unleaded gasoline is still easier to find with more expanded business hours.